Beyond Death
by Kaze Kiba
Summary: Sakura wanted sleep, Tsunade wanted sake, and he really just wanted to figure out what was going on. A YondaimeSakura story...eventually.
1. Prologue

**A.N**: I should probably explain that this is somewhat of an AU. Mainly due to Orochimaru-related things…and the fact that this never happened in the actual Naruto universe. Eh. Details.

Anyway…this takes place after the time skip. Everything before the time skip is the same. The characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. But the majority of the plot I must take blame for.

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

The only was to describe how he felt was…tickled. Quite literally.

The feeling was a familiar one, yet somehow new all at once. He wanted to laugh, but nothing would come out of his throat but a strangled cough.

He realized that he couldn't breathe.

The tips of his fingers itched at his side. In seemingly slow motion, he brought them up to his neck. The tickling eased into a suffocating numbness. His fingers gripped tightly at the sides of his neck in a panic. It registered faintly in the back of his mind that his eyes were closed as light began to burn through his eyelids. Eyelids that were suddenly too heavy to open. One trembling hand stretched out into the unknown space around him, hoping to grasp on to something. _Anything_.

But as soon as everything had come, it all disappeared.

* * *

She had been trained to fight since the age of eleven.

She had trained herself for _this_ particular moment since she was thirteen, and old enough to realize that his lust for power would not simply stop at the books he had read about different types of power in the library. That would explain her frustration as she kicked out and hit nothing but air.

She was Tsunade. Legendary Sannin and admirable kunoichi. And currently, her chest was heaving with every breath she took.

Her opponent was a pale, snake-like man by the name of Orochimaru. Like her, he was a legendary Sannin. Unlike her, he was virtually scratch-free, and finishing off hand signals to a jutsu she didn't quite catch in her shaking vision.

Suddenly, she recognized that the shaking was not only her vision, but the ground in front of Orochimaru actually was. Thoroughly exhausted, Tsunade took a couple of heavy steps back. She was wary not to step on the head full of silver spikes she knew was laying around here somewhere. The third legendary Sannin, a loud man by the name of Jiraiya, had fallen earlier. Tsunade was not quite sure yet if he was ever going to get up again.

The ground began to shake harder, and it took all she had just to keep standing. Orochimaru licked his lips in anticipation with his elongated tongue as four items rose out of the ground. He took delight in the slow sign of recognition that grew in Tsunade's hazy brown eyes.

* * *

Tsunade blinked several times to clear the fog that had started to surround her line of vision. She could feel every bruise, scrape, tear and cut across her body. The dirt moving underneath her was doing much for her bleeding head, either. Still, through her foggy eyesight, and the stinging pain that seemed to be shooting through every part of her, she faintly recognized the items slithering out of the ground.

Coffins.

She shook her head from side to side, which only served to make her extremely dizzy. She suddenly understood what Orochimaru was doing. And it was _so_ like him, to get other people to do the dirty work for him, while he sat back and watched, unscathed.

She also understood that in her current state, she could do nothing about it. She felt like crying, or fainting, or dying, even. _Anything _that would stop this nightmare was alright with her now. It was just her luck that nothing happened.

* * *

Orochimaru's eyes became nothing more than thin slits as a sudden explosion kicked gravel and dirt up everywhere. He quickly looked up to see and giant blue and white slug towering over him, a last-ditch attempt by the Godaime. An uninviting grin crept from one side of Orochimaru's face to the other. He had called upon the dead, previous Hokages to finish his former teammate off, and even though he could not call them back, he found himself suddenly wishing to fight the Godaime himself.

* * *

A light breeze ruffled Tsunade's now dirty blonde hair. She fell to her knees, landing upon the soft skin of her slug's head. Her arms fell heavily to her sides, and she swayed dangerously. She fell forward, and her already bruised chin made contact with her blue and white head as well. Though sheer willpower, she opened her eyelids to witness Orochimaru's completed jutsu. Tsunade knew, even though she had managed to call her slug out, that it was over.

A flash of yellow caught her hazel eyes, and it registered faintly in her mind that it was the Fourth Hokage who was the first to attack. The corners of her mouth turned slightly upward as she remembered what an eager person he had been when he was alive, too.

She was no longer aware of anything, except darkness.


	2. Life

**A.N: **Yay, chapter two. I promise not to make this A.N so long…so thanks to everyone who's reviewed, read, and added this story to their alerts so far, and if you haven't reviewed yet…do it! Even if it's criticism. Feedback is…uhm…good.

**Rated T**, which doesn't mean much, because according to my three year old brother…he's already a teenager. So if you're over the age of three, read on!

**I don't own the Naruto universe**. I don't own any universes, actually. Would someone care to loan me theirs?

This was written verrrrry quickly. I'll get to fixing it later, so sorry about the general crappy writing.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Life**

* * *

Tsunade awoke to nothing but a blur of shapes and colors. She blinked several times…a routine that seemed very familiar to her. With each blink, her eyes slowly adjusted to what appeared to be a hospital room. She wasn't sure why she was there. Suddenly, cold, calculating, snake-like eyes made their way to the front of her thoughts.

She sat straight up in realization, almost pulling an I.V out of her arm in the process. Pain shot through her head, and she felt the sudden urge to vomit. A small but firm hand quickly rested itself on her shoulder and pushed her back down onto the hospital bed gently. As a cold, damp cloth was pressed upon her forehead, Tsunade looked up slowly to reveal soft pink hair and bright, worried green eyes - her apprentice, Sakura.

Sakura bit her lip slightly. "Tsunade-sama, please don't move. The doctors aren't exactly sure what happened yet, so it would be best if you took it easy."

"I…" Tsunade whispered as she tried to remember what had happened.

"…I…" She whispered again. Her memory was fuzzy.

Sakura leaned in closer, loosely wrapping her hand around Tsunade's as a comforting gesture.

Tsunade couldn't remember _what_ had happened, so she closed her eyes and said the next best thing.

"I really need some sake."

Sakura pulled her hand away from Tsunade's and sighed. Tsunade opened one eye a bit and studied Sakura's face. The poor girl looked like she didn't know whether to cry, laugh, or punch something. Hard. Tsunade felt slightly guilty. She hadn't meant to do that…she really _had_ just wanted some sake.

Sakura finally shook her head. "I wish I could get you a bottle," she began. Tsunade highly doubted that, but didn't say anything about it. Sakura continued. "…I can't, though. Doctor's orders."

Of course. Doctors. What did _they_ know?

Without sake, Tsunade's mind began to slowly gather itself. She gasped suddenly, and the sharp intake of air caused her to cough violently. Sakura quickly sat Tsunade up and began to rub small circles on Tsunade's back. When Tsunade's coughing fit subsided, Sakura grasped a small glass of water and tilted Tsunade's sore head up, pouring the cool liquid down her teacher's parched throat. When Tsunade felt alright to talk again, she leaned against the back of her bed and inquired about Orochimaru.

Sakura didn't look her in the eye, but simply said "Gone."

Tsunade sat up straighter. "Gone?" she repeated after Sakura disbelievingly.

"Yes…he was nowhere to be found. That was three days ago." Sakura was being careful with her words, but Tsunade didn't press the issue. Instead, Tsunade looked down at her lap. "…and Jiraiya?"

Sakura scowled a little. "That perverted writer? He's just across the hall, flirting with every girl that crosses his path. Even patients."

Tsunade chuckled. "So…he's normal, then."

"Unfortunately."

Tsunade slouched back down onto her pillow and closed her eyes, satisfied that things were peaceful for the time being . She would worry about all of the important stuff later - procrastination was what she did best.

* * *

A few miles away in the forest, another person had just woken up. He carefully brushed a few leaves out of his spiky blonde hair and tried to sit up, only to have his forehead smack right into a thin branch. He rubbed his sore head with a cold hand and opened a sleepy eye. As it turned out, he was in a bush.

His breath stopped for a moment. He knew he was dead. That was a fact. So if he _was_ actually in Heaven, _why_ would he choose to live under a bush? He liked nature and all, and the warm, bright sunlight peeking through the leaves _was_ a nice touch….but this was ridiculous.

He moved his hand across his forehead and down the side of his face. He felt slightly feverish and extremely dirty. Without warning, his vision began to blur, and his hand fell onto coarse, itchy grass just outside of the bush.

His last coherent thought was that if this was truly Heaven, he was going to have a serious talk with the higher-ups about making some improvements.

* * *

Sakura walked out of the hospital room. She shut its door slowly and leaned against it, sighing. She had barely had any sleep in the past few days, and the only thing she wanted to see for the next month was her own pillow.

Her sensei, fortunately, had fallen back asleep. A medic nin had come in and told Sakura to go home. After a little persuasion from the nurse, Sakura now found herself in her current position.

Sakura swung herself off of the door and began walking down the hallway. As much she honestly wanted to go to bed, she knew she wouldn't be able to. Tsunade-sama hadn't fully been herself. Sakura was still worried for her, and whenever Sakura was worried, she never seemed to be able to sleep.

She exited the hospital and headed towards the marketplace, deciding she would buy food and make something for Tsunade-sama and maybe even Jiraiya, if she was up to it.

About an hour later, Sakura's arms were full with bags of groceries. Even so, she decided to take a small detour through the woods. It was an extremely nice day - there were no clouds and the temperature was just warm enough. And maybe it had something to do with how tired she was, but the chirping of the birds scattered throughout the forest almost seemed to calm her, instead of aggravate her as usual. She even thought she saw a small squirrel over by a bush a few yards away. Squirrels always reminded her of Lee, who reminded her of the chuunin exams, which reminded her of…well...

As her mind drifted further into her memories, she almost didn't even notice that what she had mistaken for a squirrel wasn't actually a squirrel at all.

She dropped her groceries carelessly, and ran to what she now recognized as an extremely dirty and bloody hand. Falling to her knees, she peered under the bush to discover an entire body. With some careful maneuvering, she slid the body out from under the bush. He was unrecognizable from the amount of blood and dirt all over him…Sakura was very surprised to find that he was still breathing.

Fully alert now, Sakura quickly went into action. She pulled a kunai knife out from her pouch and cut off his long jacket and the shirt underneath it. She gently removed his headband and his boots, and checked for any broken bones. As she moved her hands up his chest, gently pouring chakra into him, she realized that she couldn't find a single thing wrong with him, save for a small bruise on his forehead.

She slumped back, reminded of how tired she really was. He wore a Leaf headband, yet she didn't recognize him, and it wasn't just because he was extremely dirty. She was confused, but she didn't know whether to also be frightened or in awe, because she should have heard about him at least _once_ - he was obviously very powerful. After all, he was covered from head to toe in blood…and none of it was his own.


End file.
